INDIAN OCEAN 43 in our times. They certainly know by their own historical experience that gunboat diplomacy and colonization always go hand in hand. Hence the Third World countries must exert their collective influence for the return of Diego Garcia to its rightful owner, Mauritius. India has already declared its support for the demand of Mauritius,13 but it needs to assert itself in its own interest. Our Foreign Office personnel have done enough damage to India's interests by compromising them in the recently held non-aligned Foreign Ministers' conference in New Delhi. Notwithstanding our expertise in compromise formulas, India's interests demand that the strategic aspects of promoting peace in the Indian Ocean, important as they are, need not dilute the primary element in the common framework of the Third World countries, namely, their struggle against colonialism. The answer to the question, posed earlier, obviously comes out of the preceding pages—that the mute silence or the maddening noise does not serve the interests of peace as well as our own, particularly in the Indian Ocean. 1 The exceptions are Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Oman, Somalia, Kenya and Pakistan. 2 The Times of India, 29 January 1981. 8 Ibid, 13 and 15 March 1981. 4 "Soviet Diplomacy of Force in the Third World", Problems of Communism, January- February 1979, p 20. 6 See Panel Discussion on ^The Applicability of the Policy of Containment in Asia," Studies on the Soviet Union, Vol VI, 2 November 1966 (New Series). 9 George V Ball, "The .Super Lowers99, Life, 15 April 1968. 7 ^United States Policy towards Asia", Hearing Before the Sub-Committee on the Far East and the Pacific of House Committee on. Foreign Affairs, Part I, Washington, GPO, 1966,p 89. 8 Ibid, p 122. 9 Newsweek, 15 March 1966. 19 For example, India, South Yemen, Iraq, Ethiopia and Mozambique, with whom the Soviet Union has well-defined defence and security commitments under operative treaties of friendship and cooperation, 11 Such a Soviet view is summarized from numerous declarations and speeches of Soviet leaders as well as articles in the Soviet news media on the subject. The best sources available in English arc Soviet Foreign Policy Documents 1978, New Delhiy 1980, and A Gromyko, Articles and Speeches, 1944-1980, Moscow, 1980. lj See the text of the communique. Times of India, 12 December 1980. 1B See the government*® reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Times of India, 14 March 1981.